1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices used in ligament repair and replacement surgery and particularly for devices for securing a ligament onto a bone surface.
2. Prior Art
Heretofore a number of devices and tools have been developed for securing a ligament to or endosteal within a bone mass in a practice of ligament repair and replacement surgery. Such devices include staple and staple like devices and tooling therefore that have been utilized for securing a ligament to a bone surface. Such staple devices are usually "U" or channel shaped, having parallel legs, the ends of which are to be driven into a bone surface, with a web area between the parallel legs to sandwich a ligament against the bone surface. For example, such devices are shown in: U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,346 to Jurgutis; U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,091 to Borzone; U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,335 to Freg, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,524 to Hall; U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,022 to Johnson, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,967 to Shapiro; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,833 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,263,903 and 4,438,769 to Griggs and Pratt, et al., respectively. Which staples or channels, or drivers therefore are obviously not like the present invention.
Additional to staples and channel type clamping devices, retention posts or pins have also been employed for coupling a ligament onto a bone mass. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,234 to Vives, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,765 to VanKampen, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,928 to Hunt, et al. all show pins for fitting through a ligament that have expanding shank ends for fitting into a pre-formed hole in a bone mass so as to lock the ligament onto the bone mass surface.
Also the present inventors have themselves developed ligament anchoring devices, as set out in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,632,100 and 4,772,286, and in U.S. patent application Serial No. 235,194, entitled "Channel Ligament Clamp and System", and the inventor E. Marlowe Goble is joint inventor of still another ligament anchor system, U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,255. Which U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,286 relates to an expanding head for a ligament end, and U.S. patent application Serial No. 235,194, that relates to a channel clamp. These devices are not tack fasteners like the present invention and accordingly unlike the present invention.
Like the above set out U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,632,100 and 4,738,255, the present invention utilizes a stud that is endosteally installed in a bone mass. Distinct therefrom, however, the present invention utilizes a tack rather than provides a suture for attaching a ligament to the stud, as shown in these stud patents. Rather, the present invention utilizes a stud for seating in a bone mass as a footing only. The footing is for receiving and locking to a pointed end of a tack whose head end includes spikes. Which spikes extend from the head undersurface to penetrate a ligament, clamping the ligament onto the bone mass surface.